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Huge Differences
While the deadline for drafting the new constitution is approaching fast, the political parties have not been able to sort out their differences, not even in the fundamental points of the constitution. The differences are still as wide as they were in the run-up to the election for the Constituent Assembly one year ago.
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PM Dahal upon arriving back home from Norway and Finland visit |
The CA members who were sent out to various nooks and crannies of the country for the purpose of collecting suggestions from the general people came back to the capital with heaps of paper which are being sorted out by the CA. Also, the political parties have presented their views on the new constitution to the Constitution Committee of the CA. While the ideas presented by the different political parties to the CA for the future constitution have quite a good number of commonalities, they are still debating on the differences. The failure of the ongoing winter session of the legislative-parliament (which started on March 29) to take up even one business within its stipulated time (April 13) indicates to that. Consequently, the time of the session has been extended by one month till mid-May.
Major Events during mid-March-mid-April
One major event of the month was the India visit by leaders of various political parties and former king Gyanendra in one pretext or the other. When they returned, the conclusion across the political and media circle was that while Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala returned without any significant political achievement in his favour, the former King is speculated to have regained some important support from the Indian leaders. Therefore, the outcome of the April-May general elections in India may, to some extent, change the course of future political developments in Nepal.
Another major event was the refusal by the Defense Ministry to extend the term of eight Brigadiers of Nepal Army. The case reached the Supreme Court which issued a stay order against the Ministry’s decision. The Maoists held a demonstration against the court decision for which a case of contempt of court is filed at the Supreme Court against Maoist leaders including Prime Minister Prachanda. Meanwhile, the government transferred the Defense Secretary to the Reserve Pool as punishment for not helping the Defense Minister.
Student Union elections were also held last month in various colleges. The election process turned out to be the most violent in the history as the Maoist party took the election very seriously and even senior leaders of the party including the ministers took active part to ensure the victory of the party’s student union. In the final result, however, the UML-affiliated union won most of the colleges while congress affiliated union came out with second position leaving the Maoists in the third.
Another development of the month was the withdrawal of the government’s decision to have only eleven months in the calendar of Bikram Sambat 2066.
Meanwhile, the prime minister went for a weeklong visit to Norway and Finland seeking help from the Nordic countries to solve the ongoing power crisis in Nepal. But that visit was later criticized as a failure because the Norwegians refused the Prime Minister’s plea to build a hydropower for Nepal for free.
The month was also rocked by the murder of UML cadre Prachanda Thaiba in Butwal by a Maoist cadre. Though the Maoists initially refused their party cadre’s involvement, they eventually agreed to hand over the accused Sujit BK to the police. However, the Maoists later announced that BK managed to vanish from the premises of the National Human Rights Commission for the surrender following mysterious circumstances.
Another major event of early April was the by-election to the Constituent Assembly for six seats, in which the Maoists won three constituencies while Nepali Congress, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum and UML won one constituency each. Consequently, the number of seats of the Maoists and UML in the CA has increased by one each while that of the NC and MJF has reduced by one each.
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